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A  DIRECT  WORD  FOR  THOSE  WHO  ‘‘WANT  TO  KNOW” 

From  the  Foreign  Mission  Fields  as  of  March  1st,  1920 

By  FRANK  MASON  NORTH 


THE  NEW  FINANCIAL  STATUS. 

The  Centenary  was  a  great  achievement.  What  is  it  achieving  in  the  foreign  fields 
of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church? 

The  income  for  the  year  ending  October  31st,  1919,  was  increased  by  the  Cen¬ 
tenary  offerings  which  became  effective  as  such  July  1st,  1919,  to  a  total  of  $5,352,973, 
approximately  175  per  cent,  more  than  the  total  income  of  the  previous  year.  From  this 
total  income  all  the  obligations,  regular  and  special,  to  the  fields  were  covered,  a  serious 
situation  due  to  the  condition  of  foreign  exchange  in  India  and  China  was  met,  and  the 
entire  cost  to  the  Foreign  Board  of  the  Promotion  of  the  Centenary  ivas  paid. 

■ear” 

THE  PROGRAM  FOR  1920. 

The  Board  at  its  Annual  Meeting  in  December  made  actual  appropriations  of 
$5,352,973,  the  same  amount  as  that  received  the  previous  year,  it  being  forbidden,  by  a 
rule  in  its  constitution,  to  appropriate  in  any  one  year  more  than  the  amount  received  the 
year  before.  Since,  however,  the  total  expected  under  the  Centenary  offerings  for  the 
year  is  $10,500,000,  the  Board  gave  power  to  the  Executive  Committee  to  authorize  the 
Treasurer  to  make  advances  of  an  additional  amount  to  each  field  up  to  a  total  of  $5,147,027, 
such  authorizations  to  be  made  upon  the  basis  of  representation  from  the  fields  as  to 
specific  preferred  projects  in  the  field  program  and  upon  the  condition  that  funds  are 
available  or  in  sight.  The  several  mission  fields  therefore  are  making  their  plans  upon 
the  basis  oi  the  total  expected  income  of  $10,500,000  for  the  year  1920,  and  any  failure  to 
realize  that  amount  would  create  most  serious  disappointment  and  confusion. 


HOW  ARE  THE  FUNDS  BEING  USED? 

First:  As  a  preventive  of  disaster  the  Centenary  has  been  already  a  most  brilliant 
success. 

The  Board  was  never  in  a  more  secure  and  sound  condition  than  when  it  ap¬ 
proached  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  Methodist  foreign  missions.  It  had  for  six  years 
created  no  deficit,  had  added  somewhat  each  year  to  its  appropriations  to  the  fields,  had 
kept  its  administrative  and  cultivation  expenses  at  a  low  percentage  of  the  total  receipts, 
and  at  the  end  of  that  time  had  liquidated  the  debt  of  over  $121,000  with  which  the  period 
began.  The  missionaries  on  the  field  had  been  increased  by  from  seventy-five  to  one 
hundred  and  the  membership  of  the  foreign  churches  had  gained  over  twenty  per  cent. 

This  was  all  true.  But,  while  Centenary  enthusiasm  was  rising,  exchange  in  India 
and  China  was  falling.  Today  it  requires  a  dollar  and  thirty  cents  in  India,  and  more 
than  two  dollars  in  China,  to  do  what  one  dollar  would  do  three  years  ago.  Transporta¬ 
tion  costs  are  from  one-half  to  three-fourths  more  and  necessaries  of  life  in  most  of  the 


fields  have  increased  relatively  more  than  in  America,  while  the  margin  in  missionary 
income  is  less  than  in  the  corresponding  station  here.  The  aggregate  of  these  insistent 
demands  ran  up  to  many  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars. 

We  did  not  know  it,  but  the  Centenary  was  timed  to  meet  the  most  serious 
financial  crisis  our  Missionary  Society  and  its  successor,  The  Board  of  Foreign  Missions, 
have  ever  known. 

Second:  The  docket  of  the  mission  fields  was  crowded  with  unfinished  business. 
Institutions  had  been  projected,  land  bought  and  partly  paid  for,  material  gathered  for 
foundations  not  yet  laid,  buildings  planned  and  built  but  in  part,  codperation  tentatively 
agreed  to,  but  ineffective  for  lack  of  funds,  work  outlined  and  untouched  because  of  inade¬ 
quate  staff,  wide  fields  fenced,  but  fallow,  awaiting  the  plow  and  the  worker,  everywhere 
a  vital,  expectant,  progressive  company  of  devoted  missionaries,  steady  at  their  posts, 
ready  for  advance,  and  waiting,  waiting  for  supplies  and  reenforcements  from  the  Home 
ase. 

Here  was  a  great  system  of  organized  service — halted  in  mid-action.  The  Centenary 
is  filling  the  channels,  is  pouring  water  on  the  wheels,  is  putting  in  the  foundations  and 
lifting  the  walls,  and  everywhere  valiant,  devoted,  patient  missionaries  are  finding  their 
dreams  coming  true. 

As  a  force  for  conservation  and  completion  the  Centenary  is  indeed  a  great 
achievement. 

Third:  The  mission  world  is  new  because  of  the  funds  of  the  Centenary.  Little 
ventures  have  developed  into  wide,  wise,  comprehensive  programs.  Expert  study  of  China, 
India,  Latin-America,  Africa  and  Europe,  stimulated  and  supported  by  the  Centenary,  for 
months  has  been  going  forward.  We  have  had  surveys,  we  are  now  getting  blue  prints. 
In  the  program  placed  so  vividly  before  the  Church  in  the  Centenary  Campaign  were  new 
institutions,  colleges,  schools,  hospitals,  orphanages,  new  services — literature,  social  influ¬ 
ence,  industrial  training,  physical  betterment;  a  larger  evangelism — better  churches,  Sunday 
School  organization,  a  system  of  itinerating;  in  everything,  a  stronger  staff,  greater  effici¬ 
ency,  higher  ideals.  Rapidly  these  aims  and  ambitions  of  the  hearts  of  faith  are  pressing 
toward  realization.  These  new  projects  must  have  freedom  in  time  and  space.  There  are 
obstacles ;  they  will  not  yield  to  sudden  attack.  There  must  be  preparation ;  it  may  be  hast¬ 
ened,  but  not  disregarded.  We  seek  the  product,  but  first  the  plan  must  be  assured.  Many 
of  the  projects  are  already  under  way.  More  and  still  more,  as  the  new  day  grows,  will  the 
Church  see  the  outlines  of  its  purpose  lifted  against  the  far  away  horizons. 

The  Centenary  achieves  for  the  foreign  fields  prevention  of  disaster,  completion  of 
the  existing  enterprise,  but,  far  beyond  this,  the  new  constructive  program  which  will  give 
among  the  peoples  of  the  world  a  place  of  action  for  the  Gospel  of  our  Lord  for  a  thousand 
years. 


A  MEMORANDUM  OF  FACTS  FROM  THE  FIELDS. 


This  list  of  events  and  projects  is  not  exhaustive.  Some  of  the  items  are  author¬ 
ized,  others  are  in  process,  still  others  are  completed.  All  depend  upon  Centenary  funds 
and  are  based  upon  the  confidence  that  the  church  will  redeem  with  enthusiasm  its  pledges. 

Europe 

Relief  Work:  For  eight  months,  money,  food,  clothing,  shoes,  medical  supplies, 
have  been  going  forward  for  the  relief  of  the  suffering  in  the  countries  of  Europe.  The 
chief  objective  has  been  the  children  and  their  mothers.  This  relief  has  reached  Finland, 
some  Russian  refugees,  the  Baltic  provinces  (Latvia,  Esthonia,  Lithuania,  etc.),  France, 
Italy,  Germany,  Austria,  Hungary,  Rumania,  Bulgaria,  Jugo-Slavia.  In  its  varied  phases 
it  represents  an  outlay  of  approximately  $600,000. 

Northern  Europe:  The  debts  on  our  property  in  Finland  have  been  paid,  over 
90,000  Finnish  marks  or  about  $39,000.  A  fine  property  worth  twice  the  price  has  been 
bought  in  Wiberg  for  $30,000.  The  three  Scandinavia  countries  under  the  stimulus  of  the 
deputation  which  visited  them  last  summer  have  set  up  capital  Centenary  programs,  asking 
the  Home  Church  to  give  them  dollar  for  dollar  for  what  they  will  raise.  The  Executive 
Committee  has  agreed  to  do  this  up  to  the  amount  of  $100,000  for  each.  This  pledge  is 
being  called  for,  as  in  the  case  of  the  purchase  of  property  at  Malmo  and  aid  for  most 
worthy  projects  in  other  places.  Provision  is  being  made  for  cooperation  in  the  Baltic 
States  as  soon  as  proposals  become  concrete  and  are  approved. 

Central  Europe:  In  France,  the  financial  investment  includes  the  following:  Im¬ 
provement  of  the  orphanage  properties  at  Charvieu  and  Ecully;  the  purchase  of  plots  with 
buildings  for  the  social  and  evangelistic  program,  at  Cannes,  Toulon,  Marseilles,  Chateau 
Thierry,  Lyons,  and  at  towns  in  the  Savoy.  Other  important  transactions  are  pending.  To 
care  for  the  work  of  construction  and  of  actual  service,  the  staff  has  been  increased.  Special 
grants  have  been  made  for  the  French  Methodist  Church,  for  the  development  of  the  plans  of 
the  American  Chapel  in  Paris,  for  the  special  social  service  training  school  of  Rev.  Paul 
Doumerque,  for  relief  of  an  orphanage  at  Bordeaux,  for  the  proposed  training  school  for 
nurses  at  Lille,  and  for  the  reconstruction  and  relief  program  of  the  French  Protestant 
churches,  our  grant  being  made  in  connection  with  those  of  other  American  Evangelical 
denominations.  In  addition  to  the  special  relief  sent  to  our  fellow  Methodists  in  the  Central 
powers,  one  million  marks  have  been  provided  and  an  equal  amount  promised  for  the  pay¬ 
ment  of  debts  upon  properties  in  Germany  and  special  grants  are  pending  for  substantial 
help  in  Austria  and  Hungary.  The  debt  on  the  church  at  Varna,  Bulgaria,  has  been  met.  In 
Switzerland  where  it  is  believed  Methodism  must  become  more  strongly  entrenched  in  view 
of  both  ecclesiastical  and  political  adjustments  a  most  important  property  for  social  and 
philanthropic  work  has  just  been  purchased. 

Southern  Europe:  The  work  opened  in  Spain  includes  two  centers,  schools  in  Seville 
and  Alicante.  Only  at  the  latter  point  has  property  been  acquired,  in  cost  about  $15,000. 
In  Italy,  the  actual  investments  include  the  betterment  of  the  Palazzo,  the  purchase  of  the 
school  property  in  the  Via  Garibaldi,  of  a  property  for  the  Bible  Training  School,  extensive 
additions  to  the  remarkable  site  on  Monte  Mario,  a  villa  near  Naples  for  the  Casa  Materna, 
the  orphanage.  In  the  north,  a  site  in  Genoa  for  church  and  community  service,  a  new  site 
in  Florence,  available  plots  and  buildings  in  Pistoia,  Trent,  and  Gorizia,  enlargement  of  the 
orphanage  property  in  Venice,  and  repairs  to  the  badly  damaged  church  in  Udine.  In  most 
of  these  cases  partial  payments  have  been  made;  in  some  cases  cash  for  the  total  price  has 
been  required. 


For  the  most  part  these  enterprises  in  Europe  are  considered  as  belonging  to  the 
program  for  War  Emergency  and  Reconstruction  and  the  costs  are  charged  to  that  Fund, 
without  which  no  such  significant  service  for  conservation  in  Europe  could  have  been 
made. 

North  Africa 

In  the  missionary  appropriations,  North  Africa  is  classed  with  Europe.  The  pledged 
funds  which  have  made  advance  in  Europe  possible  have  given  impulse  and  strength  to  our 
work  in  North  Africa.  Without  attempting  to  describe  them,  the  projects  are  as  follows: 
purchase  of  an  important  property  in  Algiers  (city)  for  native  work;  completion  of  pur¬ 
chase  of  property  for  the  Boys’  Hostel;  in  Kabylia,  land  at  Fort  National  and  a  mission 
center  at  El  Maten,  taken  over  from  the  French  Methodists;  at  Constantine,  completion  of 
purchase  of  two  fine  properties,  a  residence  and  a  Boys’  Hostel ;  in  Tunis,  final  payment  on 
the  Boys’  Hostel  and  the  purchase  of  a  new  center  for  evangelistic  and  social  work  in  the 
heart  of  the  city;  promotion  of  plans  for  Oran  and  for  new  work  in  Morocco. 

Africa 


The  outstanding  objectives  in  Africa  at  this  writing  are:  the  building  and  equip¬ 
ment  of  three  hospitals,  one  of  which  is  nearly  completed,  in  Rhodesia,  Inhambane,  and 
the  Belgian  Congo;  the  erection  of  suitable  houses  for  our  missionaries  in  these  three  mis¬ 
sions;  the  equipment,  with  buildings  and  staff,  of  the  center  at  Johannesburg  from  which 
to  shepherd  our  constituency  on  the  Rand ;  the  purchase  of  a  farm  property  between  Eliza- 
bethville  and  Kambove,  as  the  site  for  the  Institute  which  is  planned  for  Central  Africa ; 
one  such  Institute  being  planned  for  each  conference;  the  development  in  real  strength  of 
the  schools,  the  college,  and  the  Bible  School  in  Liberia,  in  harmony  with  the  plans  of  the 
lamented  Bishop  Camphor;  and  the  increase  of  staff  and  resources  for  all  these  fields  which 
in  spite  of  the  devotion  of  many  decades  are  still  in  urgent  need  of  the  Church’s  money  and 
men  and  prayers. 

The  Centenary  has  made  reenforcements  possible.  Some  are  on  their  way;  we  need 
more.  Instructions  and  funds  have  gone  forward  for  the  building  of  hospitals  and  homes 
and  other  investments.  An  expert  study  of  educational  conditions  in  the  Congo  is  to  be 
made,  in  the  promotion  of  which  the  Centenary  permits  our  Board  to  participate. 

In  the  more  rapid  summary  which  follows,  it  is  in  my  mind  that  the  Church  is  far 
more  familiar  with  the  great  fields  concerned  than  with  the  new  and  little  known  work 
already  noted.  In  all  these  fields  the  processes  outlined  for  the  Centenary  program  are 
going  forward  rapidly  and  resistlessly. 

Japan  and  Korea 

In  Japan:  strengthening  staff  and  property  interests  at  Aoyama  for  the  great  school 
and  college  and  the  Theological  school ;  purchase  of  property  at  Hakata  for  a  strong  church 
center;  building  up  the  church  and  social  institute  at  Akonoura,  a  shipping  and  industrial 
community  across  the  bay  from  Nagasaki ;  securing  property  at  Maebara,  Kyushu ;  develop¬ 
ing  the  church  and  social  settlement  in  Asakusa,  Tokyo ;  placing  missionaries  once  more  in 
Hirosaki  and  Hakodate,  and  pressing  the  evangelistic  work.  In  Korea  special  advance  is 
checked  by  political  conditions.  We  are  prepared  to  press  forward  two  new  buildings  for 
Pai  Chai,  our  boys’  school  in  Seoul,  to  build  chapel  and  social  center  for  Chosen  Christian 
College ;  to  proyide  new  missionaries’  residences.  The  disaster  to  the  home  of  Bishop  and 
Mrs.  Welch,  which  was  recently  completely  destroyed  by  fire,  must  be  repaired,  and  the 


cost  of  rebuilding  the  Theological  School  which  suffered  in  like  manner  a  year  or  more 
ago  must  be  met  in  our  partnership  with  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South.  Import¬ 
ant  to  the  Korean  Christians,  who  have  subscribed  most  generously  for  the  building  of 
the  small  churches  which  are  in  the  Centenary  program  for  their  homeland  is  the  pay¬ 
ment  of  the  pledges  from  the  Home  Base.  The  strong  program  for  Korea  will  go  forward 
in  its  completeness  as  soon  as  political  conditions  permit. 

China 


The  Centenary  has  made  possible  the  adequate  participation  of  the  Methodist  Epis¬ 
copal  Church  in  the  four  great  union  universities  in  China.  Obligations  have  been  assumed 
for  the  necessary  increases  of  staff,  and  for  our  share  in  capital  investment  for  grounds 
and  buildings.  The  larger  plans  for  land  and  buildings  for  the  Anglo-Chinese  College  at 
Foochow  are  already  in  process.  The  secondary  schools  in  the  several  centers  are  shaping 
their  programs  upon  the  bases  of  the  Centenary,  and  requisitions  for  funds  must  be  met. 
The  hospitals  at  Peking,  Changli,  Taian,  Wuhu,  Chungking,  Chengtu,  Nanking,  and  other 
points, — union,  cooperative,  or  entirely  our  own, — have  programs  which  are  working  rapidly 
toward  large  use  of  funds  which  Centenary  income  must  supply.  Only  two  or  three  weeks 
since  drafts  for  $40,000  from  North  China  were  honored.  The  China  Medical  Board  coop¬ 
erates  dollar  for  dollar  for  the  buildings,  equipment,  and  staff  at  Wuhu.  They  are  ready  to 
advance;  we  plan  to  go  forward.  A  new  Conference  has  been  created  of  the  Amoy-speak- 
ing  Chinese,  formerly  in  the  Hinghwa  Conference.  The  funds  to  promote  the  schools  and 
churches  are  required  and  will  be  sent  on.  The  rapid  growth  of  work  in  Yenping  Confer¬ 
ence  is  stimulated  by  the  Centenary  pledges  and  the  money  is  required.  Institutional 
churches  are  being  developed  at  Foochow,  Nanking,  and  Nanchang,  and  are  planned  for  six 
other  cities.  For  Nanchang  an  appropriation  of  $20,000  has  been  made  for  the  present 
year.  Certain  phases  of  work  hitherto  maintained  by  special  gifts  come  now  for  support 
upon  the  Centenary  funds. 

China  has  a  great  program  which  is  in  large  part  the  expansion  of  its  regular  work 
and  that  expansion  claims  at  once,  aside  from  specific  projects,  the  funds  which  the  Church 
has  promised.  The  pressure  of  these  needs  and  the  response  to  them  are  not  spectacular; 
they  are  constant  and  become  a  routine  of  fine  development  which  the  Centenary  has  made 
possible.  Authorization  has  been  given  for  the  purchase  of  property  in  Shanghai  where  the 
Bishop  and  a  small  colony  of  missionaries  must  have  residences.  $25,000  have  been  allo¬ 
cated  to  the  school  for  missionaries  children  as  our  share  in  the  participation — a  most 
important  enterprise.  The  promotion  of  literature  is  receiving  a  generous  support.  The 
general  education  work  is  being  promoted. 

An  expanding  program  in  China  is  being  even  now  developed,  and  the  individual 
projects  which  stand  out  more  vividly  in  our  imagination  will  from  time  to  time  appear 
with  their  urgent  appeal. 

South  Eastern  Asia 

The  immediate  projects  in  this  great  area,  aside  from  the  increase  of  staff  which  in 
Malaysia  and  the  Netherlands  Indies,  is  imperative,  are  educational.  For  Singapore  to 
forward  the  Anglo-Chinese  College  for  which  $500,000  from  the  Home  Base  were  placed 
in  the  Centenary  askings,  requisition  for  one-tenth  of  that  amount  has  been  already  made. 
The  secondary  schools  in  the  Straits  Settlement  are  in  greatest  need  of  better  equipment, 
staff,  and  curricula  and  this  all  means  money  which  must  straightway  be  provided,  if  the 
schools  are  to  maintain  their  standing  with  the  British  Educational  authorities.  The  staff 
for  evangelistic  work  among  Mohammedans  is  being  enlarged;  missionaries  being  in  prepa¬ 
ration  in  this  country  to  be  sent  out  this  year.  In  the  Philippines,  operations  for  schools  and 
hostels  are  pending  and  the  project  of  a  union  college  is  urged.  Already  advances  have 


been  made  to  the  Netherlands  Indies  for  several  pressing  institutional  needs  and  the  program 
for  hospital  expansion  on  a  larger  scale  is  now  being  developed.  Soon  concrete  proposals 
will  be  before  us  and  they  are  sure  to  have  in  them  the  financial  content.  The  plans  call 
for  nine  hospitals,  one  sanitarium  and  ten  doctors.  The  Dutch  Government  will  provide 
three-fourths  of  the  cost  of  hospitals  and  staff. 

India 


The  Centenary  made  possible  largely  increased  appropriations  to  India.  These  go 
forward  month  by  month.  Special  attention  is  being  given  to  the  mass  movement  areas 
and  to  the  Training  Schools  in  connection  with  the  village  work.  The  new  proposals  in 
educational  policy  for  India  mean  unmistakably  for  the  Methodist  missions  the  develop¬ 
ment  of  our  schools  to  a  point  of  unexcelled  efficiency,  both  in  standards  of  work  and  in 
character  of  personnel. 

In  the  total  Centenary  askings  for  India,  $3,219,441  were  set  down  for  education. 
Of  this  the  sum  of  $1,554,951  is  assigned  to  additional  property  and  equipment,  $717,490 
for  maintenance  and  $947,000  for  endowment.  The  program,  which  is  now  being  set 
in  motion,  includes  the  opening  of  many  additional  village  schools,  the  building  of  hundreds 
of  houses  for  Christian  teachers  who  are  to  be  sent  out  into  the  villages,  the  erection  of 
additional  missionary  residences  for  the  staff  that  will  be  required,  the  increased  plant 
and  equipment  for  primary  and  secondary  education,  the  replacing  of  Hindu  and  Moham¬ 
medan  teachers  by  Christian  men,  the  founding  of  scholarships  for  Christian  students.  To 
all  this  must  be  added  a  satisfactory  policy  and  provision  for  the  very  complex  work  of 
the  industrial  institutions. 

Under  the  executive  leadership  of  Dr.  B.  T.  Badley,  Indian  Methodism  is  promoting 
a  great  Centenary  program  to  culminate  in  the  fall  of  1921.  This  the  Home  Base  Cen¬ 
tenary  is  stimulating  with  funds  and  counsel.  The  extraordinary  work  of  E.  Stanley  Jones 
among  the  high-class  Hindus  and  Mohammedans  is  maintained  by  Centenary  funds.  The 
slowly  but  surely  developing  centers  at  Delhi  and  Ghaziabad  look  to  the  Centenary  for 
early  financing.  In  Burma  new  school  property  has  been  bought.  The  Madras  press  build¬ 
ings  partly  destroyed  by  fire  must  be  restored  so  that  with  the  press  at  Lucknow  a  Chris¬ 
tian  Literature  program,  properly  endowed,  may  be  set  up  as  a  permanent  force  among  these 
people  of  many  languages  and  dialects.  School  property  at  Lahore  is  long  overdue. 
The  appeal  for  new  missionaries  is  insistent.  We  are  sending  them  as  fast  as  we  can  get 
them.  When  the  revised  budgets,  made  up  on  the  basis  of  the  actual  appropriations, 
appear,  it  will  be  more  clear  than  now  just  what  are  the  preferences  in  special  projects; 
that  they  will  be  listed  up  to  the  full  provision  of  appropriation  and  authorization  no  one 
doubts.  At  the  Home  Base  we  must  be  prepared  for  them  and  that  means,  not  pledges, 
not  surveys,  but - Funds. 

Latin-America 

There  is  Costa  Rica,  our  latest  mission  field,  ready  for  new  land  and  school  build¬ 
ing.  Panama  is  putting  on  a  larger  and  more  effective  program.  In  Mexico  we  must 
meet  the  requisition  for  the  Union  Theological  School  property  in  Mexico  City,  for  the 
properties  taken  over  from  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  South,  for  the  new  properties 
at  Guanajuato,  and  Queretara,  and  other  investments  authorized  for  which  payment  is 
or  is  soon  to  be  due.  There  is  the  new  medical  work  in  Mexico  City.  Five  new  mission¬ 
aries  are  to  go  out  this  year.  The  South  American  projects  are  familiar;  the  property  and 
equipment  for  schools  in  La  Paz  and  Cochabamba,  in  Lima  and  Iquique,  in  Santiago  and 


Concepcion,  the  Bunster  Farm  of  3,700  acres,  with  its  great  industrial  possibilities  in  train¬ 
ing  Chilean  peons  in  modern  agricultural  methods,  the  educational  projects  in  the  Argentine 
and  Uruguay,  “the  social  institution”  in  Montevideo,  the  larger  agricultural  enterprise  at 
Mercedes,  the  general  plan  for  Medical  work,  including  five  hospitals  for  one  of  which  in  La 
Paz  property  has  already  been  purchased;  and  the  proposal  for  presses  and  literature,  some 
of  them  to  be  developed  in  cooperation  with  other  denominations,  the  new  mission  to  the 
Indians,  and  the  tentative  program  for  re-entering  Ecuador  for  which  the  first  appro¬ 
priation  has  been  made.  These  are  no  longer  dreams;  they  are  a  part  of  the  program  of 
progress  in  South  America,  and,  though,  but  two  months  of  1920  have  gone  by,  the  enthus¬ 
iasm  in  the  leadership  of  South  America  for  ready  funds  is  pronounced  and  immediate. 
If  that  enthusiasm  is  honored,  the  Board’s  treasury  must  be  supplied  promptly  and 
generously. 

Here,  then,  for  the  foreign  fields  of  our  Church  is  the  meaning,  in  present  day 
terms,  of  the  Centenary  achievement.  Christendom  in  its  history  since  the  first  century 
has  not  known  a  greater  movement.  Under  its  sweep  the  foreign  mission  enterprise  for 
the  Methodist  Church  ceases  to  be  a  venture  and  becomes  a  program.  We  are  in  the  first 
months  of  that  program.  To  push  it  forward  to  success  will  require  inexorable  patience, 
undaunted  courage,  the  joy  of  self-sacrifice,  faith  that  rests  upon  an  Eternal  Strength, 
and  the  unshaken  confidence  of  the  Church  in  itself  and  in  its  Divine  Leader.  But,  if  we 
will,  all  these  are  ours! 


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